Miles Collins

Growing Oriental vegetables in an English climate

I am currently re designing my kitchen garden in preperation for next year. I always have a rethink about now, make a plan, buy more seeds than I know what to do with and then change my mind at the last minute.

I intend to set a polytunnel aside just for Asian salads and vegetables, thirty foot by ten foot it shall house wing beans, pak choi, mizuna, water spinach, red and green amaranth, mustard and chinese broccoli among others.

I have found Asian vegetables suprisingly easy to grow in England, they need cover to provide the warmth and regular watering and cutting back for continuous healthy growth but that’s about it. Mizuna, the spikey, Japanese salad is excellent as a cut and come again lettuce and looks very attractive. It is remarkably resilient and is still serving me well now.

Growing alternative vegetables gives you more creative freedom in the kitchen, texturally they offer crispness making them ideal for salads and stir-fries and aesthetically they are very pleasing with bright colours and interesting shapes.

Don’t do what I always do and plant too many of any one thing at once, think about how you would intend to use the vegetables and grow them accordingly. You can grow some excellent batches of stir-fry friendly vegetables to make a great alternative to the shop bought ready mix.

It’s worth having a go, half the fun is seeing waiting to see what you’re going to end up with, usually I’ve no idea, pea asparagus and wing beans weren’t exactly a revelation and yard long beans were exactly what they said on the packet. If, like me you love Asian food then I am sure you’re efforts will be justified.